Now before I continue I’d like to cover my arse by saying no, I’m not a big Britney fan, and no, I don’t really care about her ‘ongoing battle with… Kevin/drugs/alcohol/her weight/madness… (fill in the blanks from any newspaper this morning)’. But am I the only one who finds the whole thing so terribly sad? I mean, where are her friends? Where’s her Mum? Where are the people that one relies on in life to keep you on the straight and narrow? I know I’m always banging on about sisterhood, and I’m not one of those girls that has armies of female friends (a mere glimpse of a typical hen party on any given Dublin Saturday night being enough to send me running for my duvet), but blimey, there are a select number of people in this world that I can really rely on, depend on, would trust with my life (and my children’s), and know me well enough to tell me when I’m being a twit. How come this girl doesn’t have a single person in her life to say ‘whoa, things are getting out of control, time for me to step in’?

I smoked for x number of years and I remember the first time my soon-to-be Hubby said ‘ew, you smell gross’. It hurt my feelings, but it was the kick I needed to quit the habit. Now I’m not comparing my easy peasy life as a Yummy Mummy with what this poor girl’s going through and I appreciate that others have more addictive personalities. People in the public eye such as yer one there are exposed to an awful lot more than the odd pack of Benson’s, but where’s her support network? Where’s the firm but fair? The one person that’ll say ‘look, enough already’?

I think my point is that there’s love, and then there’s tough love. And sometimes the people that are prepared to dish out the toughest love are the ones that actually love you the most.